Solomon Admissions ConsultingReviews of solomonadmissions.com

Cathleen Sheils has been such a pleasure to work with in the past 3.5 years. Her knowledge of the whole application process is totally spot on. Our child has been difficult to work with for much of the time. However, Cathleen has an excellent understanding of the teenage mind and was able to navigate the entire journey with smashing results. We are 100% pleased with Cathleen’s professionalism and would give her our highest recommendation!

We’re extremely pleased with guidance and support our counselor Kelly and the Editing team have provided during this very competitive and stressful college admission process.The advice from Kelly was always very strategic and constructive. From personalized timeline, choosing the right extracurricular activities, finding summer programs and research to essays editing, zoom meetings and navigating Common Application, she was always professional, positive and helpful. Kelly gave the tools and assistance to present my daughter as best as possible in the admissions process, ultimately granting her acceptance to the first choice college.

In this once in a lifetime endeavor, the task of aligning the ideal university for our daughter was daunting and exciting. Our daughter attended a private school in Chicago and while there were exceptional counseling opportunities within the institution, we, like other parents, sensed that there were gaps in the guidance process that couldn't be ignored. When we sought external help, we were referred to Solomon for several reasons that would address these deficiencies. Fortunately, those metrics that we found important in selecting a counselor held true throughout the process and ultimately were key facets that provided our daughter with a broader grasp of the application process. Our counselor, Kelly, analyzed our daughter's high school life, helped define the college environment that was most consistent with her ambitions, and guided her throughout the process with aplomb. Most importantly, she did this with efficiency and honesty. She provided our daughter with proper guidance that we could not provide. Ultimately, the end result was obtaining her first choice college in the ED admission process,. However, the most significant and arguably the most valuable part of this process was how Kelly was able to have our daughter take a step back from the application process and reflect on her entire high school experience which ultimately allowed her to distill what she found as important points in her academic and social development. We believe that this reflective event that was guided by Kelly was an intangible asset that made the process less daunting and ultimately educational for our daughter. Attaining her first choice college was simply icing on the cake. We are indebted to Solomon and Kelly for their skills.

From the beginning, Soloman understood my needs, concerns, and my goals and were very quick to answer all of my questions in just the first meeting. I appreciated that they were very communicative and well prepared, immediately understanding my urgency to apply and submit the best versions of my grad school (PA school) applications as soon as possible. I worked with Dr. Jaye Hefner and Dillan Villavisanis and loved my experience with both consultants! I worked with Dr. Jaye to create a great personal statement and her strategy led me to be very happy with my final statement. I worked with Dillan on all supplemental essays and interview prep. He was the best person I could have worked with on these steps as he was very quick and thoughtful to give advice on my writing, as well as insight on what programs are looking for. He was always timely, had quick turnarounds, and was very supportive. I couldn't be more satisfied with how my applications turned out and he has my highest recommendation! Both consultants were thoughtful and very supportive, making the application process a positive experience. I was accepted into the #1 program and other top-ranking programs. Very glad I worked with Soloman and their great consultants.

I had an amazing experience working with Mr. Peter Zimmerman and the entire Solomon Admissions team. In the 18 months that I was involved with Peter, I was blown away by his strategic and rational gameplan concocted to successfully navigate the college admissions process. Peter’s amazing insight and feedback coupled with his cordial, warm, and approachable personality made the entire admissions process very smooth and manageable. Thanks to his hard work and support, my son got into both of his top choice schools. I am very pleased with both Peter and Solomon, and would recommend him in a heartbeat!

We had a very good experience with Kelly for our daughter's transfer! Even with limitations from COVID quarantine for extracurriculars, Kelly was still able to help us strengthen those portions of the application as well as assist in course selections that can best aid in the transfer. Kelly gave very helpful critiques on the essays. Our daughter got into majority of her applied schools. We would highly recommend!

My son had a great experience with Solomon and got in his top choice school (UPenn). Cathleen was very helpful in helping him think about what to focus on during summers and choice of major. Would recommend Cathleen & Solomon.

My daughter was accepted to 9 of 10 schools, including her dream school, Stanford where she will attend this fall (2021). We engaged Solomon because she attended a very large public school where the guidance counselors were good but spread very thin. We worked with Cathleen Sheils, who was truly exceptional; she gets a 10 out of 10. We started working with Cathleen when my daughter was a high school freshman and that was the best decision. Why freshman? We learned that the college application is a journey… it is about building a “resume.” It was helpful to know which courses, extracurricular and summer activity would be most favorably differentiating in a college app. A specific example is my daughter really wanted to attend a prestigious research program over her sophomore summer. My husband and I would have NEVER allowed her to attend until we learned that it would be helpful in her college applications. Based on Cathleen’s advice, we let her apply and she was accepted. In the Stanford welcome letter, the admissions officer called out her research experience. Another note is my daughter did all her own essay writing while Cathleen provided critique. This was important to us, especially with the college application scandals in the news. Her applications are her own work product and it is good to know that she was accepted on her own merit. I cannot say enough good things about Cathleen; she was truly instrumental in assisting us through the complex college application journey.